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- Appendix ll. Tutor & Peer review
- Output 4 Small and slow solutions>
- Our current living space; Alex`s house and garden>
- Pete`s house; turning a monster into an ally!
- Integrating Permaculture design into my work place
- Forest gardening at Margam Park
- Raising Seth; Supporting our son`s journey.
- Getting to grips with technology!
- Extracts from learning Journal
- Process reflection
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Appendix l
Evidence of involvement with conservation and public speaking;
Text highlighted in green indicates my involvement
1
ARG UK
Herpetofauna Workers’ Meeting
2010
Saturday 30 to Sunday 31 January 2010
Barceló Hinckley Island Hotel,
A5 Watling Street, Hinckley, Leicestershire LE10 3JA
Saturday 30 January - Presentations
Conservation status - describing what we’ve got and defining what we want. Tony Gent (Amphibian and Reptile Conservation).
The Peak Park's Vision Project - a prototype for landscape scale conservation. Rebekah Newman (Peak District National Park Authority) and Chris Monk (Derbyshire Amphibian and Reptile Group).
A standardised way of determining and recording slow-worm size and sex classes. Nick Smith (Hampshire Amphibian and Reptile Group).
What’s That Snake? Nigel Hand (Herefordshire Amphibian and Reptile Team).
Economies of scale: Reptile surveying protocols for NARRS. David Sewell (Durrell Institute of Conservation Ecology)
Herp Workers Question Time – Julian Whitehurst (Cheshire Amphibian and Reptile Group).
Influences on the capture of great crested newts in bottle-traps. Ros Hughes (Surrey Amphibian and Reptile Group).
NARRS update. John Wilkinson (Amphibian and Reptile Conservation).
What’s ailing amphibians? An update on amphibian disease. Jim Foster (Natural England).
Starting a new ARG – experience from South Wales. Peter Hill (South and West Wales ARG).
Pond Management. Jeremy Biggs (Pond Conservation Trust)
How green infrastructure can work for herps. Speaker to be confirmed (Kent Wildlife Trust).
For a registration form, please contact Ange Reynolds, 01202 391319, [email protected]
2
The Conservation of Amphibians and Reptiles in Wales
One-day Conference and Networking Event
Saturday, November 28th 2009
Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP
First session chaired by Dr Dan Forman, Conservation Ecology Research Team Swansea University and SWWARG
09.00 – 09.55 Registration (No tea or coffee available before first break)
09.55 – 10.00 Welcome and introduction.
10.00 – 10.25 Peter Hill & Mark Barber - South and West Wales ARG: The first 1st years progress
10.25 – 10.50 Nigel Hand (HART) – What’s that Snake?
10.50 – 11.15 Adam Rowe (SEWBREC) –The importance of recording
11.15 – 11.40 Break for coffee, tea and pastries
11.40 – 12.05 John Baker (ARG UK) - Making Adders Count
12.05 – 12.30 Chris Davis (ARC Trust) - Reintroducing Sand Lizards in North and West Wales
12.30 – 12.55 Sarah Jones (NEWW) - Pondscapes Project
12.55 – 14.15 Lunch (included in registration fee)
Second session chaired by Julian Whitehurst, ARG UK Regional Rep for North Wales
14.15 – 14.40 John Wilkinson (ARC Trust) - “Who speaks for the toad? Herpetofauna declines and biodiversity in the 21st Century”
14.40 – 15.05 Dorothy Wright (ARC Trust) - Great Crested Newt Species Action Plan – a national perspective
15.05 – 15.30 Break for coffee tea and pastries
15.30 – 15.55 Brett Lewis (KRAG) - Photography of Reptiles and Amphibians
15.55 – 16.25 Gareth Parry, Carolyn Greig and Dan Forman (CERTs) – Otters and British Amphibians - a different perspective
16.25 Close
SWWARG – South and West Wales Amphibian and Reptile Group
SEWBREC – South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre
ARG UK – Amphibian and Reptile Group of the UK
ARC – Amphibians and Reptile Conservation
KRAG – Kent Reptile and Amphibian Group
CERTs – Conservation Ecology Research Team Swansea University
NEWW – North East Wales Wildlife
HART – Herefordshire Amphibian and Reptile Team
ARG UK is a network of over 40 volunteer groups covering the UK, working to promote the conservation of our native amphibians and reptiles. This conference has been organised entirely by volunteers and many of the speakers are appearing on a voluntary basis. If you’re able to support ARG
UK with a donation, however small, your contribution will be put to good use.
3
Amphibians and Reptiles Opportunities and Obligations for Local Authorities Conference
21st January 2009
The objective of the conference was to raise awareness of amphibians and reptiles among Local Authority employees, highlighting legislative requirements and practical methods of good working techniques.
The target audience was Local Authority ecologists, planners, grounds supervisors and other interested people.
To quote one of the speakers
“…..The event was perceived very well and looked upon as a positive step forward not just in terms of how to improve herpetile conservation but also how to facilitate best practise in fulfilling statutory biodiversity protection duties within the planning and landscape management sector ……two students who attended said the conference had fired them up and that they had learned more in one day than in the whole of last term of their course at College….”
The day was chaired by Peter Williams, who at the time was Chair of Glamorgan Biodiversity Advisory Group. Local and national experts in the field gave exceptional presentations, giving a comprehensive overview of legislation and policy relating to herpetiles, their ecology and identification, management techniques and example of successful projects and mitigation strategies. The presentations were:
Amphibian and reptile status - legislation and planning - by Mike Oxford
A case study of Amphibian and Reptile mitigation in the planning system - by Gareth Ellis, Brecon Beacons National Park
A successful community project on Great Crested Newt mitigation - by Kylie Jones, NE Wales Wildlife
Amphibian and Reptile Habitat Management - by Peter Hill, South and West Wales Amphibian and Reptile Group, and Dan Forman, Swansea University
The million ponds project - by David Orchard, Herpetological Conservation Trust
Two workshops followed this:
Habitat management - by Dan Forman, Peter Hill and Jon Cranfield.
Planning and Legislation - by Mike Oxford and Gareth Ellis.
Further advice is available directly from the speakers listed below.
Peter Hill – South and West Wales Amphibian and Reptile Group
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 07880787433
Dr Dan Forman CBiol.MIBiol.EurProBiol. - Conservation Ecology Research Team
Department of Environmental and Molecular Biosciences, Institute of Environmental Sustainability, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 01792 295445
David Orchard – HCT Ponds Project Officer, part of the Million Ponds Project funded by the Tubney Charitable Trust
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 01204 529312 / 07817 373853
Amphibians and Reptiles Opportunities and Obligations for Local Authorities Conference
21st January 2009
The objective of the conference was to raise awareness of amphibians and reptiles among Local Authority employees, highlighting legislative requirements and practical methods of good working techniques.
The target audience was Local Authority ecologists, planners, grounds supervisors and other interested people.
To quote one of the speakers
“…..The event was perceived very well and looked upon as a positive step forward not just in terms of how to improve herpetile conservation but also how to facilitate best practise in fulfilling statutory biodiversity protection duties within the planning and landscape management sector ……two students who attended said the conference had fired them up and that they had learned more in one day than in the whole of last term of their course at College….”
The day was chaired by Peter Williams, who at the time was Chair of Glamorgan Biodiversity Advisory Group. Local and national experts in the field gave exceptional presentations, giving a comprehensive overview of legislation and policy relating to herpetiles, their ecology and identification, management techniques and example of successful projects and mitigation strategies. The presentations were:
Amphibian and reptile status - legislation and planning - by Mike Oxford
A case study of Amphibian and Reptile mitigation in the planning system - by Gareth Ellis, Brecon Beacons National Park
A successful community project on Great Crested Newt mitigation - by Kylie Jones, NE Wales Wildlife
Amphibian and Reptile Habitat Management - by Peter Hill, South and West Wales Amphibian and Reptile Group, and Dan Forman, Swansea University
The million ponds project - by David Orchard, Herpetological Conservation Trust
Two workshops followed this:
Habitat management - by Dan Forman, Peter Hill and Jon Cranfield.
Planning and Legislation - by Mike Oxford and Gareth Ellis.
Further advice is available directly from the speakers listed below.
Peter Hill – South and West Wales Amphibian and Reptile Group
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 07880787433
Dr Dan Forman CBiol.MIBiol.EurProBiol. - Conservation Ecology Research Team
Department of Environmental and Molecular Biosciences, Institute of Environmental Sustainability, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 01792 295445
David Orchard – HCT Ponds Project Officer, part of the Million Ponds Project funded by the Tubney Charitable Trust
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: 01204 529312 / 07817 373853
Photograph taken at the conference, 21st January 2009
Left to right, Mike Oxford, Kylie Jones, David Orchard, Gareth Ellis, Peter Williams, Dan Forman, Peter Hill, Jon Cranfield, John Baker, Chaela Carrell.
The idea for this conference was hatched between myself (SWWARG) and Jon Cranfield (ARGUK). The intention was primarily to deliver the conference to planners, biodiversity units and the worker`s on the ground that utilise strimmers, tractors and mowers to "tidy up" areas of parkland during the spring and summer, times of intense activity for amphibians and reptiles . The conference and workshops educated the attendees with regard to windows in the year when such work could be carried out with the least amount of damaged caused to vulnerable hedgerow and edge habitat ecosystems.
The idea for this conference was hatched between myself (SWWARG) and Jon Cranfield (ARGUK). The intention was primarily to deliver the conference to planners, biodiversity units and the worker`s on the ground that utilise strimmers, tractors and mowers to "tidy up" areas of parkland during the spring and summer, times of intense activity for amphibians and reptiles . The conference and workshops educated the attendees with regard to windows in the year when such work could be carried out with the least amount of damaged caused to vulnerable hedgerow and edge habitat ecosystems.
Species Action Plan for Local Authority Biodiversity units.
Species action plan (SAP) utilised by Neath Port Talbot, Ceredigion, Bridgend and Vale of Glamorgan, and Camarthen Local Authorities.
Species Action Plan. Grass snake.
The British Grass or Ringed Snake (Natrix natrix helvetica) is our largest terrestrial reptile and has disappeared from a much of it’s former range. The general background colouration is olive green, grey or brown with black bars along each side of the body, which vary greatly in frequency and size among individuals. The much-publicized “yellow collar” which also varies both in size as well as intensity of colour, often fades in older individuals, particularly in the case of females, and in practice consists of two triangular patches which precede two similar shaped but generally larger black patches. The underbelly is generally off white to yellow with varying degrees of black marbling, although animals with a predominately black belly are common in the Neath & Port Talbot area.
Females grow considerably larger than males and can reach over a meter in length, whereas an 80cm male would be an exceptionally large example. The most reliable method of telling the sexes apart is to compare the bulge which houses the hemipenis and greater proportionate tail length in the case of the male with the much shorter tail length (and hence lower sub-caudal scale count) as is the case with the female.
Grass snakes generally emerge from hibernation in the Neath Port Talbot area during early to mid March, the males generally doing so a few days earlier than the females. The grass snake is markedly the most itinerant of British reptiles due to the fact that as a species it requires a variety of habitat factors, and as a result is the most commonly encountered road casualty reptile. It is also Britain’s only egg laying snake, and indeed is one of only two British reptile species that does so, the entire of the remaining indigenous reptile species being ovoviviparous (i.e. live bearing) as an evolutionary adaptation to living at the northern most extremity of their natural range. As such, the grass snake depends entirely on successfully seeking out areas, which generate heat and moisture in order for the eggs to develop and regularly travel substantial distances in order to do so. Compost heaps, manure piles and woodchip piles are all realistic alternatives, but are all too often disturbed by people at just the wrong time, before the developing young have had a chance to hatch.
Amphibians are currently in decline due to a variety of factors, which is unfortunate for the grass snake as amphibians also form the bulk of grass snake diet. During the spring therefore, grass snakes are often found in the vicinity of suitable water bodies (not just ponds) and surrounding suitable sun exposed terrestrial habitat, but often disperse into adjoining heathland or scrub during the course of the summer when amphibians have left the water. Yet another vital component of suitable grass snake habitat is access to traditional hibernation sites that are often communal due to their scarcity, which incidentally is also regularly the case with egg laying sites. It is mandatory that the hibernation site is frost-free. As such, south-facing banks providing choices such as mammal burrows, deep leaf litter, tree buttresses with cracks and crevices and overgrown log or rubble and rock piles are all options. These areas can be as far away from the spring feeding and mating grounds as several hundred meters, hence connecting corridors that enable the grass snake to travel safely such as ditches and hedges must be in place. Travelling across open country puts grass snakes at risk of predation from a variety of natural predators both aerial and terrestrial.
All reptiles are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside act 1981.
Plan targets;
Monitor and protect Grass snake populations from harm, disturbance or loss from sites in Neath Port Talbot.
Increase the grass snake breeding population in Neath Port Talbot by creating amphibian breeding ponds and grass snake egg laying and hibernation sites.
Species Action Plan. Grass snake.
The British Grass or Ringed Snake (Natrix natrix helvetica) is our largest terrestrial reptile and has disappeared from a much of it’s former range. The general background colouration is olive green, grey or brown with black bars along each side of the body, which vary greatly in frequency and size among individuals. The much-publicized “yellow collar” which also varies both in size as well as intensity of colour, often fades in older individuals, particularly in the case of females, and in practice consists of two triangular patches which precede two similar shaped but generally larger black patches. The underbelly is generally off white to yellow with varying degrees of black marbling, although animals with a predominately black belly are common in the Neath & Port Talbot area.
Females grow considerably larger than males and can reach over a meter in length, whereas an 80cm male would be an exceptionally large example. The most reliable method of telling the sexes apart is to compare the bulge which houses the hemipenis and greater proportionate tail length in the case of the male with the much shorter tail length (and hence lower sub-caudal scale count) as is the case with the female.
Grass snakes generally emerge from hibernation in the Neath Port Talbot area during early to mid March, the males generally doing so a few days earlier than the females. The grass snake is markedly the most itinerant of British reptiles due to the fact that as a species it requires a variety of habitat factors, and as a result is the most commonly encountered road casualty reptile. It is also Britain’s only egg laying snake, and indeed is one of only two British reptile species that does so, the entire of the remaining indigenous reptile species being ovoviviparous (i.e. live bearing) as an evolutionary adaptation to living at the northern most extremity of their natural range. As such, the grass snake depends entirely on successfully seeking out areas, which generate heat and moisture in order for the eggs to develop and regularly travel substantial distances in order to do so. Compost heaps, manure piles and woodchip piles are all realistic alternatives, but are all too often disturbed by people at just the wrong time, before the developing young have had a chance to hatch.
Amphibians are currently in decline due to a variety of factors, which is unfortunate for the grass snake as amphibians also form the bulk of grass snake diet. During the spring therefore, grass snakes are often found in the vicinity of suitable water bodies (not just ponds) and surrounding suitable sun exposed terrestrial habitat, but often disperse into adjoining heathland or scrub during the course of the summer when amphibians have left the water. Yet another vital component of suitable grass snake habitat is access to traditional hibernation sites that are often communal due to their scarcity, which incidentally is also regularly the case with egg laying sites. It is mandatory that the hibernation site is frost-free. As such, south-facing banks providing choices such as mammal burrows, deep leaf litter, tree buttresses with cracks and crevices and overgrown log or rubble and rock piles are all options. These areas can be as far away from the spring feeding and mating grounds as several hundred meters, hence connecting corridors that enable the grass snake to travel safely such as ditches and hedges must be in place. Travelling across open country puts grass snakes at risk of predation from a variety of natural predators both aerial and terrestrial.
All reptiles are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside act 1981.
Plan targets;
Monitor and protect Grass snake populations from harm, disturbance or loss from sites in Neath Port Talbot.
Increase the grass snake breeding population in Neath Port Talbot by creating amphibian breeding ponds and grass snake egg laying and hibernation sites.
Neath Port Talbot Environment Awards 2009
Green Public sector Award category
The first Neath Port Talbot Environment Awards ceremony was held on the 20th November 2009.
Mentro Allan, the project that I worked with at the time was nominated for the Green Public Sector Award category, mainly due to the inclusive engagement of various groups of young people during the habitat creation sessions that I integrated into the project activities.
Mentro Allan then went on to win the category and I was presented the award by Iolo Williams, the Welsh Wildlife presenter. There is a link to the nomination video here
Mentro Allan, the project that I worked with at the time was nominated for the Green Public Sector Award category, mainly due to the inclusive engagement of various groups of young people during the habitat creation sessions that I integrated into the project activities.
Mentro Allan then went on to win the category and I was presented the award by Iolo Williams, the Welsh Wildlife presenter. There is a link to the nomination video here
Action for Wildlife Award category
South and West Wales Amphibian and Reptile Group (SWWARG) were nominated for the Action for Wildlife Category. I was pleased to also collect this category award on the evening. It was certainly an accomplishment to receive recognition for the work that had been done which achieved multiple targets. Personally, at the time, successfully increasing biodiversity levels whilst simultaneously raising awareness and educating all that were involved in the work was deeply satisfying. Additionally, embarrassing myself further by being filmed and wearing a suit (note no tie!) was certainly worth it as SWWARG gained access to further funding as a direct result of the awards which has since been used on a variety of projects, all of which simultaneously increase biodiversity levels and develop a respect, understanding and connection with nature among the human project participants involved. There is a link to the nomination video here
Rather than submit an entry the next year, I instead judged the Action for wildlife Category, another viewing link here
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